Zodiac Short Stories

Working at a Bakery

Aries sighed and rested her elbows on the counter. "Hello, what do you want?" she asked, eyeing the grumpy-looking customer.

"Two of those..." he squinted at the menu. "Vanilla Swirl cupcakes."

Aries frowned at him and crossed her arms. "What did you say? Stop mumbling."

The customer growled loudly - quite literally growled like a dog - "I SAID. VANILLA. SWIRL. CUPCAKES. Maybe if you got your pretty little face OUT OF YOUR PHONE and actually DID YOUR JOB then MAYBE you'd have heard what I said."

Oh, great. A grumpy customer. Aries internally rolled her eyes and smirked at him. "I'd tell you to go to hell but I don't want to see you there." She left the man with his mouth nearly dropping open with shock as she turned around gracefully and called out, "Two vanilla swirl cupcakes for our kind customer right here!"

When she got no reply, she sighed and turned towards the customer, who's face was slowly becoming bright red. "Hold on, sweetie. I hope you don't mind waiting." She opened the door behind her and walked in; and nearly got a dusting of flour to the face.

"Sagittarius!" she snapped without turning around. "I thought I told you to help Scorpio with the cakes, not... play with flour like a child!"

"Sorry, Aries." he muttered, trying to hide his smirk and flashing glances towards Aquarius, who had ducked behind a counter. "You too, Aquarius." she added, turning away from them. She's deal with them later.

"Taurus!" an angry, male voice yelled. Aries turned the corner to find Taurus sneaking a bite of one of Gemini's huge wedding cakes. "I was checking it to see if it was good!" Taurus said through his mouthful, just as Gemini himself stormed in.

"Taurus! The frosting's ruined now." he snapped, slapping his hand away from the cake. "I'll have to redo it. Go away!"

Aries raised an eyebrow at Taurus, who muttered something and slipped away - just to nearly crash into Leo, who was dressed in an apron and baker's hat. "Careful there!" he called, dodging Taurus.

Aries sighed. "You don't need that hat. I understand the apron, but really, Leo." she said in a disapproving tone. Leo didn't seem to notice and skipped away, mixing away at some batter.

She turned back to the main room to find a cake and another dusting of flour on the floor. Virgo had been attempting to wipe up the frosting, but she jumped when Aries stepped closer.

"I did nothing!" she yelped. "I was just... cleaning up!"

"She did it." Scorpio offered from the corner, licking the batter off a spoon. "Scorpio, stop doing that. It's unhygienic." Aries said. "Virgo, you should go get a mop. Aquarius, what are you doing?"

Aquarius had been leaning over a piece of paper, but he jumped to attention when Aries called his name. "Oh! I was just thinking of new cookie flavours! What do you think off... Chocolatey Ketchup Delight?"

Aries walked over, being careful to avoid the mess on the floor, and peered over his shoulder. "No." she said simply, walking away. "Throw that away."

She ignored his groan and reentered the second room to hear muffled yelling from the freezer.

Without even blinking, she opened the freezer to let Cancer out. "Please stop doing that." she said, giving her a hand. She gratefully took it and managed to squeeze herself out. "Sorry..." she apologised. Aries just shook her head and was just about to go check on the customer when Pisces swept in.

"Two Vanilla Swirl cupcakes as you ordered, madam!" she said cheerfully. Of course, they had been done as perfectly as usual - each one looked exactly the same as the other and not a single drop of frosting had dripped onto the wrapping. After all, there was a reason why Pisces had won at least a dozen awards for her flawless cupcakes.

"Good job, Pisces." Aries said approvingly - finally, something was going right. Where was Capricorn when they needed her, anyways? She glanced towards the wall, where a messily put up poster read "Employee of the Month: Capricorn".

"She's the Employee of the Month... well, every month." Taurus offered, reentering the room. "Shoo!" Pisces called, waving her hand at him as she passed the cupcakes to Aries. "No taste-testing the cupcakes."

Aries smiled thankfully at Pisces before hurrying back to the counter at the front. To her surprise, she found Libra there - and she had the grumpy customer head over heels.

"I apologise for the behaviour of our waiter." she said sweetly, leaning over the counter. "But I assure you, our cupcakes are the best. Maybe you would consider giving us hardworking workers a tip? I assure you, it'll be put to good use." She gave him a dazzling smile. As if in a trance, the customer nodded, mumbled something, and put several dollar bills in the tip jar.

Aries smiled at Libra and gave her a thumbs up while passing the customer the cupcakes. "Here you are, sir." she said, mimicking Libra's dazzling smile.

The customer just took the package, his mouth still hanging open, and nodded slowly. "I'll... make sure to come back." he said, then he turned around and left the bakery.

Aries and Libra high-fived. "Good job, Libra." Aries said, smirking at the retreating figure of the man. Libra laughed in response. "Thanks, Aries."